Alessio Riccio – Ninshubar 8.4

Alessio Riccio’s ‘Ninshubar’ is total madness. The sounds refuse to sit still. Drums
are incredibly flexible. Every sound manages to retain that nimble sense of
self. Vocalists too dart in and out of the mix trying to outrun the chaos that
surrounds them. Keeping attention is downright impossible. References abound in
the pieces from classical, jazz, drum and bass, electroacoustic, rock, and
previous undefined versions of sound. Stability is non-existent. Anytime a
groove manages to try and assert itself it is immediately destroyed by a pack
of raving lunatics welding whatever instrument they can grab.

On the
first two tracks Alessio Riccio shows off more electronic manipulations.
Distortion, that hallmark of the entire album, meets with the consistently
inconsistent drumming. It is on ‘Ishbu Kubu-[maenads]_[Ninshubar/premise]_[nell’ira]’
where things break on through into unbelievably strange textures. Violins are
scraped together in a literal sense. Bass rumbles make their way through.
Elements of it resemble the Boredoms at their most deranged right down to the screeched
vocal exercises. A strange sense of noir comes up on the breakneck loud/silence
of ‘Solennità Dell’ombra’. Ninshubar closely approximates elegance on ‘T6B-[Cerbiatta]_[Hieros
Gamos]_[La Saggezza Ideale]_[Infiniti Gli Uomini]’ which offers a nice mix
between madness and true beauty.

For the
latter half of the album the acoustic guitars makes it presence quite felt
offering yet more textures to an already busy enough mix. By the time of the
closer ‘(Re)Ishbu Kubu-[Ninshubar/Autoremix]_[Come Away]’ Alessico Riccio seems
intent on having the sound simply evaporate away right down to the vocal
exercises (as their words have been erased). Cartoonish, demented, and with a
good dollop of psychotic humor, Ninshubar defies categorization.